Jury Trial Set For Three Cops Who Tortured Man in Jail
A jury trial has been set for the case involving three corrections officers accused of assaulting Jerame Reid — the man shot and killed by Bridgeton police officers in December — while Reid was serving time in the county jail.
The jury trial is scheduled for June 2 at 9:30 a.m. in U.S. District Court in Camden.
The lawsuit names the county, Cumberland County Department of Corrections, Warden Robert Balicki, and three corrections officers: Victor Bermudez, John Zamot and John Ballard.
Reid, 36, of Bridgeton, was shot and killedduring a motor vehicle stop by city patrolmen Braheme Days and Roger Worley on the night of Dec. 30. The county prosecutor’s office is investigating the use of deadly force in the shooting, which was captured on a police dashboard camera.
Reid’s wife, Lawanda Hartsfield-Reid, recently filed a wrongful death and civil rightslawsuit in connection with his death seeking more than $1 million.
The lawsuit Reid filed January 2011 in U.S. District Court in Camden alleges that on Oct. 15, 2009, officers Bermudez and Zamot, “without any justification or provocation,” repeatedly punched, kicked and pepper sprayed his face and then poured a cold bucket of water on him while he was curled up on the ground in his cell in the county jail in Bridgeton.
Hartsfield-Reid’s attorney, Conrad Benedetto, of Philadelphia, did not immediately return a call for comment Friday afternoon.
Reid claimed he suffered broken ribs, a fractured left orbital bone and loss of sensation and nerve damage in his lips and cheek area. He is seeking at least a $100,000 judgment, as well as interest, cost, attorney’s fees and punitive damages.
Reid was placed in the county jail on Sept. 28, 2009, on charges of resisting arrest and obstruction of justice.
Reid’s attorney, Mark Frost, of Philadelphia, did not return a call for comment.
A pretrial conference is scheduled for May 19 in U.S. District Court in Camden.
The attorney representing the three corrections officers, Shanna McCann, would not comment on the upcoming hearings other than the dates they will be held.
Reid’s mother, Shelia Reid, 57, said she plans on attending the hearings.
She also said she is pleased to see the lawsuit moving forward.
“I am hopeful, yes,” said Shelia Reid, of Newark in Essex County. “I am positive that things will go forward and this will be resolved. I would like to see them to go to jail. They could have killed my son in jail.”
She said dealing with this lawsuit on top of her son’s death has been overwhelming.
“I don’t sleep, I don’t eat,” she said. “They had to upgrade my blood pressure pills because my blood pressure has been out of control.”
